Raise It Up For Ma Dukes

I just finished building a new website for the film so please check it out and spread the word! www.raiseitupformadukes.com I was fortunate enough to have some great friends help me out in the process, proofreading and editing the film description on the site. While a very special friend of mine task created a fantastic original graphic for the site and the marketing materials. We will be working on some original merchandise to use to help raise money to make the film, and I will have more to come on that soon. For now, thanks for all the support and please spread the word about the film and the website. I begin production on Saturday so hopefully I will be able to upload a clip for everyone to see in the next month.

Ma Dukes

For those of you who have never had the privilege of meeting Ma Dukes and who may not know how incredibly amazing she really is I thought I'd post one of Dilla's videos that she appears in. The video was shot only a few months before Dilla passed and just a few days after he was released from the hospital. Ma Dukes was never far from Dilla's side and at the time this video was created he was in rough shape. She was sitting on the bench keeping him company until his part was to be filmed and when it came time to shoot he told her to stay put...

The J Dilla Foundation

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As many know, Ma Dukes has withstood a long, frustrating legal battle with the Dilla Estate, administrated by a Los Angeles law firm, fighting since the Fall of 2006 for rights to her own son’s name and likeness, even for non-profit projects (the original incarnation of the J Dilla Foundation was forced into hiatus just months after its inception in 2006, the same year as his death). Finally, more than 3 years later, the Yancey family is pleased to report the re-structuring of the Dilla Estate with a new legal consult head in Los Angeles, and full cooperation of the Estate with the Foundation. In addition to suffering the stresses of the Estate and Foundation battles, Ma Dukes herself has been struggling physically with the same disease, Lupus, from which her son fell to, so this victory for her and the entire family is twice a relief.

The J Dilla Foundation will be comprised of a qualified and diverse team executing a range of both community and youth music programs, mentorships, partnerships with accredited music curricula with focus on Hip Hop, as well as a scholarship program. Parker states that there will be an annual university music scholarship awarded to one or more students attending schools with progressive music programs such as Berklee College of Music, Columbia University and the University of Michigan, among others.

The J Dilla Foundation also has an amazing Sound Board consisting of the cadre of musicians, producers, MCs and DJs that worked closely with Jay Dee over the course of his shortened, yet prolific, career. Not only will this crew provide insightful and inspiring sound bites about the music of J Dilla, but they will also serve as the other half of the committee that will judge J Dilla Foundation music scholarship submissions from applicants. This aspect of the Foundation indeed makes for a truly interactive operation, bridging the gap between the “real” or “street” sector and academia in music development. Notable members of the J Dilla Foundation Sound Board include acclaimed artists such as ?uestlove of The Roots, Erykah Badu, Q-Tip & Phifedawg of A Tribe Called Quest, Busta Rhymes, Pete Rock, Dwele, T3 of Slum Village, Big Tone, Madlib, DJ HouseShoes, J Rocc & Rhettmatic of The Beat Junkies, Peanutbutter Wolf of Stones Throw Records, the Mochilla crew, and more.

It's been a long time...

(copyright photo by Amy Peck)

A lot has happened since i posted my last update. Back in June I participated in a panel discussion for New York Women in Television and Film and Women Make Movies. The comprehensive, all-day seminar explored the diverse sources of funding available for independent film and video makers, including grants, television pre-sales and on-line communities. It was a great experience and I met a lot of really talented filmmakers. I also got some great ideas about fundraising from some of the incredibly talented filmmakers who participated in the event. After the panel I spoke at length with Women Make Movies founder Tracy Holder and coproducer of an American Masters biography of theater producer Joseph Papp. She raised $10,000 for her documentary by selling buttons. Needless to say I am now working with a very talented graphic designer who is helping me to design original merchandise to help fund my first feature documentary. More to come on that soon...

Just this month my fellow Profluence filmmakers received some excellent news regarding our first film Blind Faith: A Film About Seeing. The film won the honourable mention award at the 2010 Picture This Film Festival. The film will screen at the festival in Vancouver this February. This is our second award for the film, which won Best Soundtrack at the 2008 Hot Docs Film Festival in Toronto. Blind Faith is actually available for viewing in it's entirety at Snag Films, an affiliate of IndieWIRE. Check it out here and please feel free to leave a comment and a rating! One of our subjects, Victorine Fludd, had her artwork featured in a recent exhibit at the University of California, Riverside and in a related Time Magazine article. You can view an online selection of some of the featured works from the exhibit here.

Finally, the photograph I included above was taken by a very talented photographer, Amy Peck, whom I met while filming at the United Nations. We were both there for the 15th Commemoration of the Rwanda Genocide. To date it was the most emotional shoot I have ever done. There were no dry eyes during the ceremony and many of the UN representatives broke down when addressing the crowd. UN Ambassador Susan Rice concluded her remarks by saying "We bow our heads to mark the memory of those who were slain. And we bow our heads to mark the sorrow of all who stood by."

Shadows of Guilt now playing online

I found out this weekend that Profluence Productions' latest film, Bend & Bow, has been accepted into Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, Montana. This is our second year in a row qualifying for the film festival and we are all thrilled. The exact date of the screening has not ben set, but the festival runs from February 13th to the 22nd. Fimmaker and blogger AJ Schnack named Big Sky as a rising film festival while P.O.V had this to say about last years festival:

DOCUMENTARIES WITH A POINT OF VIEW

Big Sky Film Festival

February 22, 2008 10:22 AM, by Simon

After the hectic pace and hype of Sundance, it was a treat to go for the first time to the Big Sky Film Festival in Missoula. In fact, it was my first time in Montana — and I'll be back. I was a juror in the documentary feature category along with the delightful Skylar Browing (Arts Editor of The Missoula Independent) and Deborah Barkow (filmmaker and editor). The winner of the feature competition was Jimmy Rosenberg: The Father, The Son, The Talent by Jeroen Berkvens — an elegant and richly layered film about a guitarist who should be known better in the U.S. A special jury award for artistic vision was given to When Clouds Clear by Anne Slick and Danielle Bernstein (lovely cinematography!). For full festival results, see the festival's website.

The Wilma Theater is the home of the Big Sky Film Festival in Missoula, Montana.

The festival's artistic director is Doug Hawes-Davis (Libby Montana, P.O.V. 2007), and in just five years the team there has built Big Sky into a festival with a deservedly good reputation. The home is the wonderful historic Wilma Theatre — a lovely specimen in downtown Missoula with a main house that holds an audience of 1100 and a smaller second theatre for special programming — this year, they'll feature a retrospective of the great work by Hart and Dana Perry.

Read more after the jump....

The program (over 160 films) had a nice mix of premieres, highlights from the festival circuit, shorts and films of particular appeal to local audiences. The opening film was the lovely (if perhaps a teeny bit long) The Gates by Antonio Ferrara and Albert Maysles — a fascinating and beautiful portrait of Jeanne-Claude and Christo's struggle and triumph to produce their exquisite installation in Central Park. Audiences lined up to see recent festival favorites from Up the Yangtze to Kurt Cobain: About a Son, a great set of shorts sponsored by the International Documentary Challenge, and premieres including La Americana by Nicholas Bruckman and Conviction by Mike West and Bill Ward. The audiences were particularly enthusiastic for some of the local programs with lines down the block for Montana films The Little Red Truck by Rob Whitehair and Class C by Justin Lake and Shasta Grenier.

It was a great, easygoing festival experience and Missoula's a lovely town — a wonderful mix of rural America and college town. So mark your calendar for February 2009, and treat yourself to a few days of taking in some excellent films in a great place. And when you go, be sure to take a hike in the Rattlesnake — you'll be awed by the wilderness!

More air dates for Shadows of Guilt

12/25/08 : 10:30 PM - 11:00 PM &

12/26/08 : 01:30 AM - 02:00 AM

Shadows of Guilt
- Rating: TV14
Are there some debts to society that can never be repaid' Gregory Frederick took a life and paid with 22 years of his own before struggling to reenter society. As he grapples with his new found freedom, the film explores what it means to live in the shadow of guilt.
Directed by Dana Bartle